In December 2015, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change was adopted, outlining a global action plan to avoid dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to below 2°C. Countries have put forward Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs), outlining their climate mitigation and adaptation ambitions. Delivering on the Paris Agreement will require countries to effectively implement these INDCs, as well as increase their ambition over time. Though some INDCs were unconditional, others contained or were wholly conditional upon receiving adequate finance, technology, and capacity development support. The Paris Agreement on Climate Change emphasized the importance of making available financial resources to support the implementation of policies, strategies, regulations and action plans for climate change mitigation and adaptation. While international climate finance flows to the Asia and the Pacific region are among the largest, the extent of overall climate finance in the region is as yet far below the estimated needs. Many of the countries in the Asia and the Pacific region have submitted conditional INDCs, which highlight the increased level of mitigation and adaptation ambition that could be achieved with adequate support and means of implementation. While the international community has committed to mobilizing USD 100 billion annually to support mitigation and adaptation actions, this sum will not meet the growing climate finance demands in the region. For example, it is estimated that for climate mitigation and renewable energy actions alone in the region, USD 500-800 billion will be required between 2015 and 2030. Mobilizing adequate climate finance resources requires identifying innovative and alternative sources of funding, including leveraging private-sector financing. Practical challenges to private sector engagement include the high up-front investments needed for the transition to low-emission and energy-efficient alternatives; managing the perceived and real higher political, technology and policy risks; and the lack of an enabling policy environment with clear signals to the private sector. National public finance institutions – including Central Banks and National Development Banks - have a key role to play in overcoming these challenges and guiding investments towards low-carbon sustainable development alternatives. These public financial institutions are good ‘change agents’ for advancing environmental sustainability solutions because of the great influence they exert through the pervasive impact of their policies. This project seeks to identify the gaps in, develop and deliver targeted advisory and technical assistance to central and national development banks in four to five countries of South and South West and Southeast Asia, in order to enhance the capacity of these institutions to put in place policies and guidelines that encourage investment towards climate mitigation and adaptation projects. By virtue of their prominent role in framing national fiscal policy, the actions of these institutions can set the stage for, and encourage, commercial bank and non-bank financial institutions to adopt similar practices, therefore triggering private sector financial flows towards climate mitigation and adaptation and sustainable development activities. Leveraging ESCAP’s analytical, capacity building and regional convening power, the project will also work to engage countries across the region in order to encourage South-South and (sub)regional learning and cooperation networks to emerge. The project will deliver across two concurrent activity streams: one set of activities will target increased understanding of the overall situation of domestic finance in the target regions, developing and consolidating best-practice information and tools; the second set of activities will bring this enhanced knowledge and understanding to the project beneficiaries and partners, increasing their capacity to mobilize domestic climate finance.